Joan Shelley

Over and Even

Dear Joan, how did you make the decision to dedicate yourself full time to your music?

It was a few years ago, in 2013, just before Electric Ursa came out, and before the label No Quarterpicked me up. I had been out on tour in Europe with my friend Daniel Martin Moore for a record we made together. We were in Spain and Ireland. In these countries pursuing music felt somehow more legitimate and respected. It helped me see a healthier future for myself in music. After No Quarter came on board, and I started working with Nathan Salsburg, that's when I kinda went all-in.

Can you say something about the landscape, people, realities of the world you grew up in and that molded you in the amazing artist you are today?

I was very lucky to grow up in a place of great natural beauty, on a small horse farm outside of the city of Louisville in Kentucky.​I was the youngest with two older brothers, which certainly influenced my personality. I was always singing or dancing or performing in some way, vying for attention.

But I was pretty shy with outsiders. I spent a lot of time playing in the creek by our house (or at least I remember that time more vividly). And I wrote little songs to myself.​ I remember having this deep, saddening thought when I was 6 or 7, singing to the clovers and butterflies or whatever, that by the time I grew up, all the songs will have been written. All the different combinations of melody and words will have been made. It is still a wonder to me that that didn't happen.

Who are your favorite artists who have inspired you in your music and the ones who have helped you along the way?

Will Oldham has long inspired me. He always offered interesting advice when I ask. Joe Manning (guitarist and vocalist on Electric Ursa) exposed me to lots of music like Bill Callahan and June Tabor. I was introduced through his band King's Daughters & Songs to Rachel Grimes who plays piano and sings in that band. ​Nathan Salsburg has been an inspiration and a help along the way, bringing a lot of great Kentucky old-time music to my attention as well as some current artists who are making some of the best music right now- like Steve Gunn, The Weather Station, and Doug Paisley. He introduced me to all that. That's the best kind of help- sharing great music around. Nathan is also the archivist for the Alan Lomax Archive. So, not only does he have great taste, he has the keys to some of the most beautiful and weirdest old American music you can find.​

​You have a busy schedule packed with tour dates throughout the country: New York, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and more. What vibes do you get from the people and places on tour?

It is hard to say. The feeling of a night really depends on the venue, I think, and how a crowd feels going to that place. We don't put on a huge production that overcomes the spaces. So, I can't say for certain what any region is like. Maybe up in New England I detected a sense of a deeper appreciation for the kind of balladeer tradition. Some salty little muses still hanging around in the pubs up there.

What part of Kentucky and the Appalachian you always keep with you wherever you go, or is it mostly the music and lyrics that are rooted there?

My senses have a strong attachment to Kentucky. The limestone rock, the way it smells in spring when the ground unfreezes, and the seasons change. Our particular brand of extreme weather- tornado weather, thunderstorms, the occasional heavy snow. It's where my family is, and has been for a long time. The traditional music from this part of the world was only uncovered to me as I grew up. So that's something I look forward to going deeper into and digging around. ​

As an artists, how do you see your role in your community and wider society? What is the support artists deserve and receive and how does it affect the realities we all share?

Oh man, I wish you could tell me. I think I am only figuring out more and more every day how complicated it is to be an artist in our society, always comparing it to my experience of that role in other countries when I tour. We need good art. But being an artist doesn't command much respect unless you are validated by money. But the flip side of that is youtube, and blogs, and everyone's expressing… It can be overwhelming and I'm not sure it exactly produces good art. As far as my role in the community, I can only hope that it would look like those of the artists that have been so important to me. Good artists have given my spirit something to chew on, wrestle with, something to overcome. It has helped me to let go of ideas that don't fit anymore, made me comfortable with uglier realities, more accepting of myself and others.

Do you follow other artists works: visual art, performing, literature, etc.? Who are the local artists whose work you know and appreciate? ​My dad is a visual artist so I have grown up with an appreciation of the language that visual art opens up. I fell for Rothko through him, and found my way to love Edward Hopper. Locally there's a brilliant visual artist named Letitia Quesenbury, a painter and illustrator I like named Larry Steinrock. Tim Morton is a talented actor from Louisville who just recently starred in a film called "Men Go To Battle." My bookshelf is largely populated by essays and poems from Kentuckian Wendell Berry, who sits alongside Joan Didion, David Foster Wallace, and another Kentuckiana native, John Jeremiah Sullivan.

What has kept you going to make it to the point you are now as a performing/recording artist and what is your advice to younger artists out there?

The support of my brothers, parents, and close friends has kept me going. That's the perseverance part. Then you need good collaborators, people who will be honest with you. Surround yourself with people that are better than you at what you want to do, and listen to them. And then show up all the time.

Based on the praise you have received for Over and Even, have you made any plans of what’s coming next or do you concentrate on the here and now?

We're devising plans for how to record this next album. In the meantime I'm touring with Nathan Salsburg and trying to figure out that whole crazy part of the equation. Booking shows and planning routes makes recording an album feel like a breeze.